Comfort Eating

[Chameleon]

Originally Posted by Fazc

Definitely very relevant and important topic in my opinion. Good idea.

Thank you, Fazc.

McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC etc.

All these in moderation are harmless. But the fact is, to many, it's not moderation. It's a daily occurrence where there's no end.

I want to make it an end, & I'll tell you why.

I was brought up on a very unhealthy diet. Burgers, pizza's, chips, sweets, cakes etc. But I was a kid & when your family gives you this food, you think that they're doing well for you. It isn't until you get older & can think for yourself that you realise that they wanted to shut you up & hence feed you addictive food. I'm not slating my parents here, as I realise it's not easy being a parent, but their eating habits rubbed off on me for the worse.

I was 18st. of pure fat thanks to my families eating habits. They're are many more out there in a worse state. & the only ones benefiting are those Company Executives with millions in their pockets.

How can we stop this for good?

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by Chameleon

How can we stop this for good?

Protests, lobbying, and lots of it...that's the only way.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by Chameleon

Okay, this thread has NOTHING to do with healthy nutrition & healthy eating. It's more to do with the choices that we make, & WHY & HOW we make them regarding what we eat.

This past few months, I've been working on building several houses with a number of construction workers on site. Every lunchtime, several of the workers (around 75%) eat large amounts of junk food.

2 litre bottles of fizzy juice
sweets
biscuits
crisps
pies
pasties
fish & chips from the local fish & chip shop

In the morning's, it's a trip to the local bakers where lots of pies, sausage rolls cakes are bought. & then after work, it's another trip to the local fish & chip shop.

Now, during the day I was never tempted to eat any of the above. But after work, I couldn't help but consume sweets, chocolate & crisps.

Sometimes, whether it was the weather or the stress of the work involved, I'd get so down I needed comfort food. If you're working in the pouring rain, & tempers are getting short, all you can think about during the day is a cold beer with a bag of tortilla chips & some chocolate & gummi bears.

Obviously, these feelings that I & millions of other construction workers get is purely psychological. These foods are comfort foods.

The point of this thread is, does anyone else slip into the comfort food dungeon? Or have you slipped into the comfort food dungeon before? How do you beat this? How do you beat it forever?

I feel that this is an important topic in today's society. With advertisements here, there & everywhere selling flashy packaging food, I think everyone has slipped into the dungeon at some point.

Best

C

There are two very distinct topics being mixed here; comfort foods, foods which people tend to trun to in order to elicit feelings of a different era/time, maybe relating to their chidlhood or to another time in their life when they were happy and content, are not the same as junk foods.

Comfort foods can be and very often are healthy foods...many will turn to homemade bangers and mash and other similar choices. Junk food, on the other hand, is not necessarily comfort food.


I think the thread is more so about junk food not comfort food.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by 5kgLifter

There are two very distinct topics being mixed here; comfort foods, foods which people tend to trun to in order to elicit feelings of a different era/time, maybe relating to their chidlhood or to another time in their life when they were happy and content, are not the same as junk foods.

I'd also add a possible third topic here, which is timing. These comfort/junk foods are often consumed during the evening where typically most people have more time on their hands. At least this is what the OP is saying.

So the eating of food being tied into habits, activity levels and mental/physical stimulation also plays a role.

[Chameleon]

Originally Posted by 5kgLifter

There are two very distinct topics being mixed here; comfort foods, foods which people tend to trun to in order to elicit feelings of a different era/time, maybe relating to their chidlhood or to another time in their life when they were happy and content, are not the same as junk foods.

Comfort foods can be and very often are healthy foods...many will turn to homemade bangers and mash and other similar choices. Junk food, on the other hand, is not necessarily comfort food.


I think the thread is more so about junk food not comfort food.

I'll tell you why I disagree.

Mon - Sat on the site, if I suggested bangers & mash to any of the lads, I'd get laughed at. Plain & simple. If it isn't fish & chips or takeaway curry, nobody is interested.

I now know that there is addictive additives in these junk foods. Additives that make us want to eat more of it. It makes us feel happy whilst we're eating that product.

I feel comfortable eating pizza, chocolate & all sorts of crap. Because it gets me in a comfortable state of mind. Come 5pm on the site, these guys want to get stuck into something greasy & fatty to comfort them from the crap day they've had on the site.

It just sickens me all of this because it's not for our own personal, nutritional benefit. It's all about putting $'s in Mr. X's pocket.

[Chameleon]

Originally Posted by Fazc

I'd also add a possible third topic here, which is timing. These comfort/junk foods are often consumed during the evening where typically most people have more time on their hands. At least this is what the OP is saying.

So the eating of food being tied into habits, activity levels and mental/physical stimulation also plays a role.

So how can we change this? Going into a supermarket today is heart attack hell.

I think about this most days, especially as I was overweight & I see people gorge everyday.

Maybe I'm getting a bit carried away here! lol. I know that myself & the MAB crew can't change the world as we know it.

Bring back the caveman diet.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by Chameleon

So how can we change this? Going into a supermarket today is heart attack hell.

Very true.

I think it's a clever combination of what both you and 5kg are saying:

1) Emotional eating
2) Sugar/fat/additive dependence

The food companies aren't stupid, they know that advertising catered towards encouraging warm fuzzy feelings about food are just as vital as the masses of sugar and other such crap added to food to provide that physiological addiction to the food as well. So you get mental and physiological addiction and that is a very difficult combination to break.

I think the cure is seeking alternate lifestyle choices, education into nutrition and the types of 'support groups' you see online like MaB. I know it's odd to think of MaB as a support group but essentially it acts very much like one; like minded people come together in their spare time with the goal of self-improvement. Having this type of social 'back-up' is very important if you are bombarded with suggestive advertising and co-workers pressuring you into their way of eating. That would provide some relief from the mental addiction. For example if 20% of your day is interaction with MaB and people at your gym then you would stand a far better chance than if that same 20% was spent down the pub.

In terms of physiogical addiction; I think this is personality dependant. I prefer going cold-turkey, but perhaps for someone else adopting a middle ground approach would seem the more healthy in the long-term. Either way the junk food needs to be minimised if not cut out altogether. All things in moderation as they say, but even moderation.

[bruteforce]

Government needs to just stay out of my kitchen. Its my choice. A piece of white bread is poisonous to me. So is whole wheat. Or oatmeal. The government wouldn't understand this. If we choose to poison ourselves, fine. Each day we vote with our hard earned money. When the populace decides to stop eating junk, the companies that peddle it will change their product line or go out of business.

[Chameleon]

As Fazc stated earlier, it's important to surround yourself with like minded people. & in MAB, there are like minded people.

Maybe MAB can fight the war on de-nutritional hypnosis from Nestle, Mars etc.

[elijah]

Originally Posted by bruteforce

Government needs to just stay out of my kitchen. Its my choice. A piece of white bread is poisonous to me. So is whole wheat. Or oatmeal. The government wouldn't understand this. If we choose to poison ourselves, fine. Each day we vote with our hard earned money. When the populace decides to stop eating junk, the companies that peddle it will change their product line or go out of business.

This is how we change it^^^